Supreme Court Defers Hearing on Jagtar Singh Hawara's Jail Transfer Plea

• Apr 21, 2025

The Supreme Court on Monday postponed by two weeks the hearing on a petition filed by Jagtar Singh Hawara, a convict in the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking his transfer from Delhi’s Tihar Jail to a prison in Punjab.

A Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai granted the adjournment after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Chandigarh Administration, requested additional time to respond to the plea.

The Punjab Government had earlier opposed Hawara’s request for transfer, arguing that since he was tried in Chandigarh, he could not claim a right to be housed in a Punjab jail. “If at all he is to be transferred, it should be to the Union Territory of Chandigarh, not Punjab,” the Punjab Advocate-General submitted, noting that a similar request had already been dismissed by the Delhi High Court in 2018.

The Advocate-General further pointed out that Hawara had escaped from the high-security Burail Jail in Chandigarh in 2004, and that Punjab prison rules do not apply to Chandigarh. The Delhi Government, meanwhile, argued against shifting him to Punjab, calling it a border state and raising security concerns.

The Bench had earlier directed the Centre, the Delhi Government, and the Chandigarh Administration to file responses to Hawara’s transfer plea.

Hawara, now 54, has cited several reasons for requesting the transfer: his consistent good conduct in jail, the socio-political context of the crime, and the fact that his daughter resides in Punjab. He also noted that all other co-accused in the case are lodged in jails in Punjab and that the Director General (Prisons) had recommended his transfer back in October 2016. Hawara claimed there were no pending cases against him in Delhi and that his incarceration was preventing him from attending proceedings in a Punjab court.

During a previous hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Hawara, emphasized that his client had a 14-year-old daughter whom he had no access to. “All other co-conspirators are serving their sentences in Punjab. Why should he be the only one kept away?” he had argued.

The case stems from the assassination of Beant Singh and 16 others in a bomb blast outside the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Hawara was arrested on September 21 that year.

In 2007, a special CBI court sentenced both Hawara and Balwant Singh Rajoana to death, while co-accused Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh, and Shamsher Singh were handed life sentences. However, in October 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted Hawara’s death sentence to life imprisonment. An appeal by the prosecution against this decision remains pending before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Rajoana’s mercy plea has been under review for over 12 years.

Hawara, who escaped from Burail Jail on January 22, 2004, was rearrested a year later.

His petition also states that 36 false cases were filed against him following Beant Singh’s murder, of which he has been acquitted in all but one. Due to his continued incarceration in Delhi, he claims he is unable to appear in court for the ongoing case in Punjab, which is proceeding in his absence — a situation he argues is unjust and prejudicial to his legal rights.